


History of Interior Design

by PepperF



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: F/M, I mean really, Schmoop, schmoopity schmoop, so sickening, there are babies and everything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-24
Updated: 2015-05-24
Packaged: 2018-04-01 01:48:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4001329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PepperF/pseuds/PepperF
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a fond memory, even though he looks kind of dorky in the photo, so he hangs it in his office.</p>
            </blockquote>





	History of Interior Design

**Author's Note:**

> Basically, see here for the reason behind this one: http://bethanyactually.tumblr.com/post/119741728496/lunarblue21-anneedison-ive-been-pausing-and

When he's first forced to become a teacher in this toilet they call a school, he doesn't worry too much about personalizing his office, because he figures he'll be gone as soon as he finds a way out. Six months later, he's beginning to accept that he might be here for a little while, so he breaks into the almost-empty trophy case and steals the framed front page of the Greendale Gazette Journal Mirror, the one that shows him and Annie winning the debate championship all those years ago (he leaves the trophy itself because he knows this place and these people and doesn't want to kick off any kind of Greendale-style manhunt for the thief). It's a fond memory, even though he looks kind of dorky in the photo, so he hangs it in his office. He spots the moment Annie notices it – she breaks off in the middle of a sentence, and seems to forget what she was saying. He says nothing, and neither does she, but she gives him a shy smile when she leaves his office.

\---

They're in the middle of their can't-keep-their-hands-off-each-other phase, a couple of months after he finally gets his shit together and asks her out, when it gets knocked off his wall, shattering the glass. He takes it home, meaning to get it reframed, but now he's got the real thing he's less concerned about those old memories. Annie, with her Type A personality, would no doubt have got it sorted, but she's in the middle of finals fever, and what time she doesn't spend studying is spent doing him (he's SO not complaining). The glassless frame gets shoved to the back of a cupboard in his apartment and forgotten. 

\---

He's surprised to see it again when he and Annie move into their first place together. It's not Annie but Abed who unearthed it, and got it reframed and hung on the wall in their new living room as a housewarming gift. He gives Abed a grateful, surprised look. Abed just shrugs.

"It's important to your backstory," is his explanation.

\---

It moves back to Greendale a couple of years later, when he gets his shiny new office, the one that comes with all the hideous responsibility. Oh god, how did he become Dean? How is this even possible? Is it some kind of divine punishment?

Annie smiles when she sees it. "How many people can say they've got a photo of the moment after their first kiss?" she wonders.

"I look like an idiot," he says grumpily.

Annie grins. "You do look a little bushwhacked," she agrees. "I can't believe the great Jeff Winger was so affected by little ol' me." 

He can't help but grin at her transparent fishing for compliments. She's so adorably devious. He puts his hands on her shoulders and stares over the top of her head at the picture. "Apocalypse Annie. I should have known then that my life was never gonna be the same."

She leans back against him and sighs dreamily. "And now look at you," she says, because of course she's over the moon about his horrible new career.

"Ugh, don't remind me. Are you sure we can't persuade Craig to come back?"

"I think he's happy," she says, somewhat dubiously. Montana had been a surprise; from the Skype calls, Jeff gets the impression he's either joined or founded some kind of cult. A rescue operation-slash-intervention is probably in their near future. Annie runs her finger down the side of the frame. The engagement ring on her finger catches the light, and he suspects that has a lot to do with her sudden new habit of talking with her hands and compulsion to reach out and touch stuff. "You're happy too, right?" she asks. "I mean, really?"

He bends over to kiss her neck. He's never going to be completely comfortable saying the words, but he's the luckiest man alive because she's always willing to read between the lines for him. "I'd be happier if we could christen the new office," he murmurs suggestively.

"Jeff! That would be unprofessional," she scolds – but, notably, snuggles back further into his arms. Jeff grins.

"I think," he says, kissing his way down her throat, "if there were one word to define... any and all of my careers... that would probably be it," he says.

\---

"And this," he says, "is when mommy and daddy first kissed." He's giving Lyra the tour of his office, holding her up in his arms so she can see his pictures. "There was a big competition, and we wanted to win it. To do that, we had to get everyone to agree that man, uh, people are bad. The other team had to get everyone to agree that people are good. When everyone agreed that one team was right, they would be the winner. We talked and talked about lots of bad things that happen in the world, but the other team were very good too, and it looked like they might win. But then mommy used daddy for what's called a prac-ti-cal de-mon-stra-tion. She kissed daddy, which made him do something bad. Everyone agreed that people are very, very bad indeed, and we won the debate!"

The nearly-two-year-old smiles approvingly at him. Of course she understands. It's not that he's biased; it's just that he happens to have the smartest, most beautiful baby in the history of the universe. These things happen.

"If you could not teach her about moral relativism just yet, that would be great," says Annie, dryly. He turns around and grins at her, and Lyra waves a hand. She's not talking at the moment, but she wriggles and holds out her chubby little arms, telling them clearly that she wants to go to mommy. They handoff with comfortable ease, exchanging baby for wineglasses.

"The moral of the story is that mommy and daddy are an unstoppable team," says Jeff, "and that you should never get between mommy and something she wants." Annie raises her eyebrows at him. "And lying is bad, you should be a good girl, blah blah blah," he adds, rolling his eyes. Annie shakes her head at him, but lets it go.

He takes a sip from his wineglass and holds Annie's up so she can drink. "Troy and Abed have agreed to babysit on Saturday," she says, eyes on the frame. Jeff straightens. It's not that he doesn't adore his daughter with a ferocity he could never have imagined, but time alone with Annie is not to be taken lightly. "All night," she adds.

Jeff widens his eyes. "Slumber party," he says. It's code. They have a lot of codes, these days. This one in particular means 'I'm going to screw you all night long'. "Yay!"

"Yeah, I thought, if we had some time alone together, we could be a lot more productive," says Annie, casually. "Or even reproductive." She gives him a quietly intense look over Lyra's head, and Jeff's heart leaps into his throat. They've talked about it, and he's totally on board, but he thought she wanted to wait a bit longer. But apparently she's decided to go off-book on him… again.

"Yeah?" he asks softly, moving in to put his arm around her. She leans her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah. That is, if you—"

"Yes. Definitely. Yes." He kind of wants to carry her off to somewhere private right now (or hell, just draw the blinds and lock the door – it's not like it would be the first time), but there's Lyra, and Chang's leaving do to consider. Besides, conceiving baby #2 in his office would probably be a little TOO much like the old Greendale. They'd have to name it Leonard or Vicky or something, god help them.

He settles for burying his nose in her hair. He stares at the old photo of himself, and the dopey expression he was wearing after she kissed him for the first time. _You think that was amazing?_ , he thinks to that years-ago him. _Jeff Winger, you have NO idea._


End file.
